Elton John

Talk about suspense. Further to the news that Prince is soon releasing PLECTRUMELECTRUM, his first album with all-female rock trio 3RDEYEGIRL, a short teaser for their track "PRETZELBODYLOGIC" went up on YouTube this week. Warning: blink and you'll miss it. The album was written and recorded in Prince's Paisley Park recording studio in Minneapolis, London and New York. Meanwhile, at time of writing, we are still waiting to know exactly which "iconic venues in and around London" Prince will be playing on the Hit and Run Tour any time from Monday. Keep your diary clear…

Sometimes, even the most hardened doubters of Gary Barlow’s MOR entertainer schtick have had to concede that he can write ’em. Cynics can relax, though, because no such concessions are required for his first solo album since 1999, which falls below Barlow’s best – “Patience”, “Rule the World” – at just the point when he needed to up his game.

Shire has made its biggest acquisition, spending $4.2bn (£2.6bn) on the US drugs maker ViroPharma. Shares in Shire rose 26p to 2,822p, even though it paid $50 a share for the rare-diseases specialist, which had revenues of $428m last year. Shire’s chief executive Flemming Ornskov expects to create $2bn revenues from medicines for rare diseases next year.